--- Notes

Commentary on the Excerpts of Li Weihan’s Principal Statements on Ethnic and Religious Questions [1] (September 11, 1964)

Comrade Xu Bing: I hope you will uphold the class stand, unite with the majority of comrades, and urge them never to waver. Mao Zedong September 11

Returned to Comrade Xu Bing. Printed from the manuscript.

Notes [1] The Office of the Central United Front Work Department of the CPC Central Committee issued on September 3, 1964, excerpts of the principal statements by Li Weihan (also known as Luo Mai), Minister of the Central United Front Work Department, concerning ethnic and religious questions. These excerpts were divided into eight topics: 1. Reform and suppression of rebellion; 2. Religious issues; 3. Regional autonomy; 4. The Panchen Lama issue; 5. The united front among the upper classes; 6. The Xinjiang question; 7. Ethnic relations, nationalism, and related matters; 8. Socialist ethnic issues. At that time, these excerpts were used to criticize Li Weihan. On September 3, 1964, Xu Bing, Vice Minister of the Central United Front Work Department, wrote a letter to Peng Zhen, a member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and Secretary of the Secretariat, in order to submit this material. The letter read: “I am sending you Comrade Luo Mai’s statements on ethnic and religious questions. The text is brief and easy to read. Please review it, and if you deem it appropriate, please forward it to the Chairman for his perusal. We shall separately send copies to the Secretariat and the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau.” After Peng Zhen forwarded Xu Bing’s letter and the excerpts of Li Weihan’s statements to Mao Zedong, Mao inscribed a commentary on the letter. On August 18, 1980, the Central United Front Work Department prepared a report on the re-examination of Comrade Li Weihan’s case, which was discussed and approved by the Secretariat of the CPC Central Committee on November 20 of the same year. The report concluded that the criticism directed at Li Weihan by the United Front Work Department from 1962 to 1964—including the reports, speeches, and other documents concerning Li Weihan issued during this period and subsequently in 1965 (some of which had been circulated to various central organs)—was, both theoretically and politically, contrary to Marxism-Leninism and Mao Zedong Thought, and, organizationally, violated Mao Zedong’s principles and methods regarding intra-party struggle. All materials used in the criticism of Li Weihan should be rescinded, and the Central Committee’s decision of December 25, 1964, to remove Li Weihan from his post as Minister of the Central United Front Work Department, should likewise be revoked.